


To speak

by LadyAndHerCat



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Anakin understands, Cody understands, Gen, first fic, no beta we die like Jedi, selective mutism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:27:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23669884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAndHerCat/pseuds/LadyAndHerCat
Summary: Sometimes Obi-wan doesn’t speak.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 22
Kudos: 176





	To speak

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Wordspring](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8115496) by [Redrikki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki). 



Ever since he was an initiate, there were times where his words went away. He wouldn’t speak to anyone for weeks. Not to Bant or Garen or Reeft or any of the masters. No one could explain it, and the masters had very little patience for it. 

He knew when it was coming. It would get harder and harder for him to talk until he was completely silent. It only got worse when he was stressed. 

The weeks before he turned thirteen were very quiet. He barely spoke until he was assigned to agricorps. Then he went completely mute. The words welled up inside of him again when was on Bandomeer, offering to give his life to save Master Jinn. 

Qui-gon took him as a padawan, but he never understood. He was only ever irritated and frustrated when words would leave him. After Tahl died, after Melida-Daan... after his master abandoned him for his Chosen One. 

**

A week after Qui-gon died, words left him again. 

He could feel it coming back, so soon since the last time his words left him, the familiar tightness in his throat when he tried to speak. 

He had a little time though, to warn Anakin. He told his young( _too young, too young, the both of them_ ) padawan that he was going to be very quiet for a while. 

“Okay,” Anakin said. His surprise must have shown on his face, because Anakin continued, “Mom had quiet days too. I’ll just talk enough for both of us.” 

“Thank you,” he whispered. 

**

Anakin’s brow wrinkled in confusion as his new master walked away. ( _Different kind of master, different. He’s free now, different, different_ ). 

Thank you? For what? It was the same thing he did for Mom ( _don’t think about her so far away from him, what if—_ ). Quiet days weren’t that weird, were they? 

It didn’t matter, he decided. He’d just take care of Obi-wan. 

**

It was three days before his words came back to him. It was the quickest his words have ever returned. 

His words rarely left him during Anakin’s apprenticeship and usually came back quickly—with a few notable exceptions. 

**

Anakin’s teenage years brought arguments. Surrounded by trained force-sensitives and with a very powerful padawan, these arguments did not go unnoticed. Naturally, all the masters in the temple felt the need to address this with him. And express their opinions on how he could do better in training his padawan. Remaining polite in the face of those masters who felt the need to share their opinion when they did not know Anakin was... trying. And stressful. 

It all culminated in their next argument. Anakin, frustrated and upset, shouted that he wished it was Qui-gon who lived. 

Obi-wan went silent and left the room. He didn’t speak for almost two weeks. Anakin never apologized, but he never said anything of the sort ever again. 

**

Anakin only ever mentioned Obi-wan’s quiet days to Chancellor Palpatine once. He couldn’t have been older than ten, eleven at the time, but he remembered how much Palpatine’s reaction surprised him. 

The Chancellor has always been so kind and understanding to him. To hear him talk about how _frustrating_ it must be to have such a _weak_ master— sorry, _teacher_... it shocked him. 

The Chancellor thought that Obi-wan’s quiet days made him weak? Obi-wan wasn’t weak, he was a great Jedi! His mom had quiet days too, and she wasn’t weak! The Chancellor clearly didn’t know what he was talking about and Anakin told him as much. 

Of course, Palpatine said, patting his head condescendingly, of course. The Chancellor changed to the subject and Anakin didn’t say anything about Obi-wan’s quiet days to him again. 

The Council’s reaction had also seemed weird to him. They had just finished a mission and were on their way back to Coruscant when Obi-wan went quiet. He had been a little bit older, maybe twelve at the time. 

Obi-wan’s words weren’t back by the time they were supposed to make their report to the Council, but they went anyways. 

When he told them that Obi-wan was having a quiet day, most of the Council frowned in disapproval, even Master Yoda. 

He could feel shame and guilt seeping through his bond with Obi-wan, but he already had a puzzle to solve, so he ignored it. 

Master Plo Koon wasn’t frowning, though it was hard to tell, but Master Koon was always super nice, so that wasn’t really strange. 

But Master Windu wasn’t—well he was frowning. Master Windu frowned a lot, especially at him. But he wasn’t frowning at Obi-wan. In fact, he almost seemed... sympathetic? He opened himself up to the Force a little bit more just to make sure. 

Huh. Master Windu must actually like Obi-wan. 

**

When he told Cody about his quiet days, the clone started teaching him hand sign. When he’d asked about it, Cody shrugged. 

“We get shinies who speak with their hands,” he said. “Sometimes it fades, sometimes it doesn’t. Some of them don’t talk at all. Besides, sign is useful in the field. It would be good to learn it anyway.”

Hand sign... helped. Especially after Cody recruited a couple clones who spoke with their hands to help him learn. It was... nice. That he wasn’t the only one. 

**

On Tatooine, after... everything, he didn’t speak a lot. Didn’t really matter if he could or not. 

No one to talk to anyways.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, please tell me what you think. Constructive criticism is more than welcome
> 
> I don’t know anything about selective mutism, if I have gotten something horribly wrong please tell me
> 
> I borrowed to idea of clones that “talk with their hands” from another fic that I don’t remember the name of and I can’t find


End file.
